


Going to War

by Bacner



Category: The Gifted (TV 2017)
Genre: Clarice tries to be supportive but is overwhelmed, Gen, Inner Circle - Freeform, John is Tired, Lorna - Freeform, Marcos is angry, Morlocks - Freeform, Mutant Underground, Spoilers, baby Dawn, council of war, post-coMplications
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-10
Updated: 2018-10-10
Packaged: 2019-07-29 06:02:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,012
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16258160
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bacner/pseuds/Bacner
Summary: And so, the Mutant Underground is going to war with the Inner Circle. If only their morale was better...





	Going to War

Marcos was angry.

Marcos was actually very angry. He was in the pissed category, really. “Just who, no, just who, do those Inner Circle people think that they are?” he ranted even as Clarice banged his burned arm up. “I will not be turned by them into my old man! I will bring my woman and daughter back over!”

There was an uncomfortable pause as John and Blink looked at each. “Uh, Eclipse?” Thunderbird said carefully, “but I think that your roots are showing, and now is not the time-“

“Of course my roots are showing – they’re always there, they’re roots!” Marcos glared at the other man. “You cannot just cut them off and expect everything to be hunky-dory – well, maybe you can, Yoko-Jono, but-“

“Enough!” John snapped with an unnatural sharpness, but then again, Eclipse was acting out of character first. He turned to Clarice with an explanation: "Marcos may’ve been down, but certainly not out, and now that he’s back up, he’s itching for a fight again."

“Makes sense-“

“Yes,” John cut-off Clarice (against his better judgement), “but whenever he goes into that mode, it’s back to the times of the Cartel for him.”

“Oh yeah – that Carmen woman,” Clarice nodded sagely, but was cut-off by Marcos again:

“Don’t talk to me about Carmen! I’m not ready to talk about Carmen!” he howled.

“Um,” Clarice looked back at John: if this would continue to go thusly, it would go very badly very quickly. Or maybe it would just grow worse. Clarice did not want it to get worse.

“Lorna told me that love was not enough! To my face! Well, if love isn’t enough, then let war fill-in the gaps!” Marcos was continuing to howl; with his mutant powers lighting his eyes from the inside, he was doing a very convincing depiction of a werewolf not under the influence of a full moon…

“You don’t want to go there, Marcos,” John said in a quiet voice. In part, it was because he was weary – the new mutants had a less-than-helpful stance, and between it and Evangeline’s own new defeatist attitude, John really did not want to deal with any of Marcos’ own craziness either. Yes, he was entirely justified, since it was his daughter, but for the love of God John could not see how bringing out the bin guns, (literally – Marcos did know his black market weapon dealers, after all), would win Lorna back, especially love-wise.

…Unless Marcos did not care about love anymore himself, and just wanted to fight things. And people. And possibly also kill things. And people. In which case all of their X-Men-related dreams could just go out of the window-

“Yeah, they totally could,” Marcos admitted, startling John into realizing that he said at least the last part aloud. “But they were never my dreams – not really. Yours – certainly, ditto for Lorna, but now Lorna herself does not care very much for them, I think. So, why should I?”

“Because this is what being a hero is all about,” Clarice replied flatly. “Doing the right thing regardless of the cost. True, sometimes the right thing is not obvious, but it does not matter in this circumstance – you know what the right thing here is…”

“Maybe I do – I just don’t care,” Marcos growled, but it was obvious now that he was calming down. “What is the point of being a hero anymore? Of the mutant underground anymore?”

“Well, what are the other options?” Clarice snapped. “Join those underground sewer Morlocks’ people? They may have a good thing going on, or so they claim-“

“That’s not the same,” Marcos half-ignored Clarice’s question. “Hiding in the dark and hoping to never get noticing isn’t much of a success ever. I don’t know if they like to pretend that they are Christians, who are trying to escape or coexist with the Romans and the lions in the catacombs, but regardless? Even the Inner Circle’s idea of a revolution is better than theirs is!”

“…I’m sorry, but what now? They’re planning a revolution?” John did his best to shake off his fatigue and pay attention. “Seriously?”

“That’s the vibe I got from Lorna,” Marcos did not back down either. He no longer rambled in-coherently, but regardless… “That’s Reeva’s big pitch to her. Reeva’s the one who overpowered me, by the way,” he added as an after-thought. “The Frost sisters may think that they are really good with their sneak telepathy, but they aren’t that tough: I burned at least one of them, and as my grandpa used to say, ‘legs that walk have knees that yield’,” Marcos finished with a rather nasty smile on his face.

“Marcos, please don’t channel your grandpa ever again,” John shuddered. “The last thing we need is a Corleone-wannabe in the midst on top of everyone else.”

(Across D.C., a certain mutant blonde suddenly sneezed). 

“Sorry,” Marcos actually did not sound very apologetic. “But it seems to me that we got some of our mutant brethren are planning to do something that is much more active than just imitating the X-Men while the others are just hiding in sand and pretending it to be a success story. This leaves us either unneeded, or just another face in the crowd. Either way – we fail,” Marcos shook his head. “Ah well, that’s life. What do we do now regarding Lorna and the baby?”

Before John’s actually much frayed temper could snap, and he would say something really inappropriate about Marcos, Lorna and the baby, the door opened.

“People, we heard that the Inner Circle is finally mounting an attack!” Lauren Strucker declared, (without any genuine enthusiasm, of course, but after her own emotional runaround, she was in for some mindless action and violence herself). “Shall we go and stop them?”

“Yes we shall!” John replied brightly, (he was, after all, a man of action, not deep thoughts).

And so the Mutant Underground went forth to battle with the Inner Circle properly at long last.

And then things went wrong, as they always did.

End


End file.
